CIO Profile: Debbie Sullivan

Name: Debbie SullivanDistrict: Debbie spent 28 years
in Decatur Township, an urban
school district in Marion County, IN,
spear heading staff development,
curriculum, assistant superintendant
and rounding out her time in the district
by serving as the superintendent until
her retirement in late July.

As a Curriculum Mapping Institute
speaker at the recent School
Improvement Innovation Summit
2013, Debbie Sullivan’s definition
of the curriculum mapping process
aligns with that of her colleague
and CMI Executive Director, Heidi Hayes
Jacobs, EdD.

“We need to make curriculum maps
something beyond just those old curriculum
binders we stuck up on the shelf,” she says.
“The mapping process should create a living,
breathing curriculum in a form that is accessible
to all the teachers, so that we can all use the
information together to make instructional
decisions to improve our student achievement.”

Sullivan knows a little about this topic,
having spent 35 years in education. She started
as a 1st-grade teacher and continued her
career donning nearly every hat possible as
both elementary and middle school teacher,
administrator, spearheading staff development,
curriculum, assistant superintendant and
rounding out her time in the district by serving
as the superintendent until her retirement in
late July.

The past 28 years of her career was spent
in Decatur Township, an urban school district
in Marion County, IN. This district employs
300 teachers and serves 6,300 students, of
whom 10% are minority and 65% receive free or
reduced-priced lunch. Decatur’s students learn
at two high schools (one, a small “New Tech”
school), two middle schools, five elementary
schools, and one early childhood center.

“We started our curriculum mapping process
with Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs 10-12 years ago
as part of our Journey Toward Excellence. [We
looked] at the curriculum and created calendar based
study units to build a collaborative inquiry
culture where we are all working together,” she
says. “We use curriculum software, Rubicon
Atlas. As we’re looking at the Common Core
transitioning and carefully considering how
they’re upping the ante for what our students
needs to do [and how] the curriculum mapping
process can really support that work. If you’re
using the software in a school or district, it makes
it more accessible for communication, [revisions,
and upgrades.]

“Our current curriculum was always aligned to
state standards. As we’re creating new units based
on Common Core [standards], or integrating
them into current units, it gives us a wonderful
opportunity to look at the potential upgrades.
As we’re digging in, we can look at the past and
shed the old content we don’t really need, and
think about what we can do better for the future
to upgrade the assessments (which we’re going
to need for PARCC and Smarter Balanced) and
quality of teaching in our classroom.”

Selling change is not always easy, particularly
when political decisions and uncertainty throw a
hiccup into the process.

“Based out of Indianapolis, we’re supposed
to be implementing Common Core 100% in
K-1st [grade] this year and next year for 2nd
[grade]. Our district has been spending the last
year creating our core maps using the Common
Core to be ready for the transition…but Indiana
(the legislature and the Superintendent of Public
Instruction) has now paused for a year, putting
the schools and district in a dilemma for all the
work already done. Other schools prepare for
PARCC and Smarter Balanced, only to be told
they are no longer a PARCC state.”

“The biggest obstacle is time. The second
is communication and getting everyone on the
same page. But it is a part of our obligation as
professionals to figure out how to do that and
move forward with it.”

Sullivan’s district employs a Curriculum
Council of 50-60 teachers and administrators
to learn the Common Core in depth and make
decisions.

“We can’t not do it because we don’t think
we have enough time or we don’t agree with it.”
she says. “It is where we are going and, in my
opinion, the Common Core really is good. When
you think about the College Readiness Anchor
Standards and practices, increases in the Lexile
expectation—if we don’t embrace and figure out
how to move forward, we are doing a disservice
to our students. It’s here. Now how are we going
to meet the needs of our kids?”